Leo Fernandes, center, embraces teammates Jack McInerney and Sebastian Le Toux to celebrate Le Toux’s goal — off a Fernandez assist — that proved to be the game-winner in a victory over the New England Revolution at PPL Park on Saturday. (Julia Wilkinson / 21st Century Media)

CHESTER — Through an offseason of change in midfield, Leo Fernandes’ closest tie to the Philadelphia Union’s news pieces was an afternoon game of cards.

At PPL Park Saturday, Fernandes proved he was able to deal some pretty effective soccer too.

Fernandes did the heavy lifting to set up the Union’s only goal tapped home by Sebastien Le Toux, sending the PPL Park faithful home with a 1-0 win over New England in the club’s home opener.

With new acquisitions galore making their home debut, it took a familiar face and an unlikely candidate to spell the difference.

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The latter was Fernandes, making his eighth career MLS appearance and fourth start in what would become the first time he’s ever gone the full 90 minutes in MLS. He was a late inclusion, with captain Brian Carroll scratched due to illness shortly before kickoff.

With Maurice Edu sliding back into Carroll’s holding midfield role, the second-year Supplemental Draft pick was given free rein to maraud about midfield and create offense.

He did that in the 31st minute, sliding past defender Andrew Farrell and getting into space on the left wing when Farrell went to ground looking for a foul. Fernandes squared a ball to Le Toux, who poked home past onrushing goalkeeper Bobby Shuttleworth to put the Union in front.

The choreographed celebration afterward involved Fernandes and Le Toux mimicking their customary games of cards.

“It’s a great day, one of the best days of my life,” Fernandes said. “Just going out there and helping the team win. I was so happy to help the team out. … I wasn’t expecting (to start). When I walked in the locker room, I saw my name on the board. I didn’t tell my family. I wanted them to be surprised.”

The fact that Le Toux finished the chance should come as no surprise. He scored in the Union’s home opener in 2013, notched a hat trick in the Union’s first ever home game in 2010 and tallied a goal and two assists in the inaugural contest at PPL Park in 2010.

He added an assist in the Union’s 2011 home opener and also scored in his debuts with Vancouver and New York. Talk about starting on the right foot.

“I don’t know, I get off to good starts,” Le Toux said. “I hope I’m going to score more goals this year and help the team more offensively. It was good, I’m happy about that, just happy that we got those three points.”

For a midfield trying to assimilate major pieces after a scant few weeks of preseason, the insertion of Fernandes could’ve been disruptive.

Instead, the Union (1-0-1, 4 points) were the drastically better side in the first half, unfortunate to enter halftime with just one goal after one-way traffic attacking a Revolution defense in shambles.

A week after allowing three goals in the first 23 minutes of a 4-0 loss in Houston, New England (0-2-0, 0 points) allowed the Union to pour forward, enjoying 63.3 percent of the possession and 85.4 percent passing accuracy in the first.

Fernandes could’ve had a bigger imprint on the stat sheet as he created some of the Union’s best chances. Shuttleworth made a sprawling save in the 25th minute on Jack McInerney, who redirected Fernandes’ driven shot/cross on the edge of the six-yard box.

In the 35th, Fernandes flicked a pass into the path of Cristian Maidana down the right wing, but Maidana was put off just enough by A.J. Soares to allow Shuttleworth to collect.

“I think you saw in the first 10 minutes of the game, it was a little shaky just because we hadn’t trained with those players in those positions all week long,” John Hackworth said. “But Leo has been in a lot of the preseason activities with those guys, and then I thought we started to get the game a little bit, knock it around, and it was good. I told Leo, you don’t have to be the best player on the field. All you have to do is go in and play the role. You’ve got to do that job, manage the minutes, manage the moments.”

The late change also cast Edu into a different light. Where in last week’s 1-1 draw at Portland he had Carroll to shoulder the defensive burden, Edu was less able to go forward Saturday.

But his restraint and tidiness in putting out fires in midfield was a big part of the Union’s ability to keep the clean sheet.

“Normally BC, he’s our rock,” Edu said. “He’s the guy that protects the back four, he starts the attack for us by breaking up plays. I play alongside him, but it allows me to get forward more. Today, with him out, I kind of assumed his role and had to be a little bit more disciplined and really just hold back and defend the back four so that Vincent (Nogueira) and Leo could get forward and get into the attack. And they did well.”

The Revs’ best chance came six minutes before halftime when a defensive miscommunication afforded Teal Bunbury space down the left wing. He crossed perfectly to Diego Fagundez, but Zac MacMath slid over to deny the 19-year-old. The rebound pinballed between MacMath and Fagundez and sailed harmlessly over the bar.

The Revs changed tactics after a first 45 minutes of defending and counterattacking, but clear-cut chances were few and far between. The closest to a breakthrough was Fagundez, whose swerving drive in the 59th minute was fisted over the bar by an unsure-looking MacMath.

Much of that suffocation was due to the Union adjusting from last week’s failures to kill off the game.

“We were in this position last week,” Hackworth said. “We were up a goal and we talked about it all week long, that while we had a good performance last week, we needed to take that next step. It was a little different, but you close out a game. We really didn’t give them a chance in the last 10 minutes. I think that says that we are slowly making progress in that regard.”